Movies about teenagers seemed to have changed a lot since my self-imposed exile from them because of ‘cannot relate to them’. Last I wrote about the surprised Netflix hit for me through ‘To All the Boys I Loved Before’, which I felt a breath of fresh air into the genre. Tonight, I ran into a little piece of gem that I missed while people were raving about it when it was in the cinemas – ‘Love, Simon’.
Yes, I know. I am late to the party and the whole universe had moved on. But I was quite impressed about how the movie dealt with the issue being highlighted as the theme. Simon, played by the perfectly performed Nick Robinson, came from your most picture-perfect suburban family. Dad Jack (Josh Duhamel) was a famous ex-League player and mum Emily (Jennifer Garner) was the smartest and most liberal wife and mother you could find. With a well-articulated and ‘career-focused’ younger sister, Simon had it all – except for one thing – his secret identity as a gay teenager.
Simon is loved among his friends and was never the target of bullies. He is doing fine at school and is the principal’s favourite student. However, as Emily pointed out, Simon has been holding back his breaths for years. That is, until Simon met ‘Blue’. A fellow student at his high-school who posted a blog on the school’s gossip site talking about a secret that was affecting him all throughout the years. Feeling a connection Simon reached out as Jacques, and the correspondence continued. Their online relationship flourished and Simon started putting genuine smiles back on his face. His favourite pass time was waiting for ‘Blue’s’ replies. He felt that he was himself again. However, the freedom within the online world was also met with threats when part of the conversation was accidentally spotted by another fellow student and started blackmailing Simon. Determined to keep his ‘relationship’ with Blue under wraps Simon juggled and as we all knew juggling is taxing and eventually things fell apart.
It was a movie not just about growing up, but about the need to deal with shit that nobody should be dealing with because of who he / she is. As Simon’s fellow classmate Ethan said, coming out, no matter at what age, is not easy. Simon’s jealousy of the freedom Ethan enjoyed at school for being who he was, was not at a small cost. But that is the part that Simon slowly learnt and accepted. And this was the same for his friends, whom responded in their own ways to the crisis unfolding at school while re-assessing their own identities.
The movie was dealing with some heavy issues but with expert light heartedness that did not trivialise the subject. I think that was the reason that I was so impressed and got hooked into it. The conversation between Jack and Simon, in which Jack was filled with guilt for not knowing earlier to be more helpful and understanding, while Simon was the person who salvaged the situation for him, demonstrated one would never know what is inside another person’s head, no matter how close they are, and also help would always come in its surprising way. At the end of the day, proper space and open-mindedness are important for everyone involved. I also particularly like how the principal flashed out what is meant by ‘tolerance’ without letting the notion going down the cliché drain.
Love, Simon seemed to have initially presented itself as a teenage love story but it is so much more. The delicate balance that it presented made this movie an exceptional story and experience for the audience. I do not know whether everyone who saw it took away something with him / her but for me the most outstanding part was its achievements of balance without being laborious. You don’t need to overthink. It is there. Whether you want to take it with you is your choice.
Love, Simon is a teenage movie done right. It is not cliché and it is full of joy, heartache and surprises. If you have missed it, come in with an open mind for you will never know what you can learn from these teenagers.
